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[[Image:VT_shield{{University|name=Virginia Tech|image=VT Burruss Hall.jpg|righttext=#660000 |thumbbackground=#FF6600|School shield]]type=Public[[Image|city=Blacksburg, Virginia|sports=baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, wrestling<ref>http:VT_seal//www.gifhokiesports.com/</ref>|rightcolors=Maroon and burnt orange|thumbmascot=Hokies|School seal]]website=http://www.vt.edu/}}'''Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University''' ("Virginia Tech", formerly "Virginia Polytechnic Institute" or "VPI") is a public land-grant [[university ]] founded in 1872, serving, according to its mission statement, "the Commonwealth of [[Virginia]], the nation, and the world community." It is taxpayer-supported.

It has 26This [[gun free zone]] government school was the location of the worst [[young mass murderers|school shooting]] in American history,370 students onwhen one of its seniors, [[Seung-campusHui Cho]], about 17% of whom are graduate massacred thirty-two studentsand faculty on April 16, 2007, before killing himself. It has a strong sports Cho had written and engineering programssubmitted as coursework disturbing papers that, resulting in much larger percentage of male students than most colleges[[hindsight]], appeared to reflect an unstable person obsessed with violence.<div align="center">[[Image: 58800px-2007 Virginia Tech massacre candlelight vigil.1% male and 41.9% femalejpg|400px|thumb|center|Virginia Tech students gather for a prayer [[vigil]] after the 4/16/2007 massacre that took thirty-two lives. ]]</div> Many of its students are from foreign countriesIn 2011 another shooting there left two dead.

[[Image:800px-2007 Virginia Tech massacre candlelight vigil.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Students gather for a prayer vigil after the massacre that took thirty-two lives]]The school received international attention after one of its seniorsIt has 26, Seung-Hui Cho, massacred thirty-two 370 students and faculty on April 16-campus, 2007about 17% of whom are graduate students. Cho had written It has strong [[sports]] and submitted as coursework disturbing papers that[[engineering]] programs, resulting in hindsight, appeared to reflect an unstable person obsessed with violencemuch larger percentage of male students than most colleges: 58.1% male and 41.9% female. Many of its students are from foreign countries.

Virginia Tech was founded in 1872 as the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College, with 132 students, a president and three professors: one each in [[English]]; natural [[philosophy ]] and [[chemistry]]; and technical agriculture and mechanics.<ref>Heatwole, Cornelius Jacob (1916), ''A History of Education in Virginia,'' [httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=BuscAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA204&dq=%22virginia+polytechnic+institute%22&as_brr=1#PPA207,M1 pp. 204-7]</ref>

Great expansion took place between 1890 and 1896, the student body growing to about four hundred and its name was changed to "Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnic Institute."<ref name=histnotes>[http://classof2004.alumni.vt.edu/chapters/volunteers/handbook/Chapter01.html#Section2 Virginia Tech History Notes]</ref>. In 1944, the name became "Virginia Polytechnic Institute," and in 1970 "Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University", with "Virginia Tech" being used for informal purposes such as athletics.

{| class="wikitable" align="right"|-! colspan="2" | Virginia Tech|-! colspan="2" | [[Image:VT_shield.jpg]][[Image:VT_seal.gif]]|-| Location| Blacksburg, [[Virginia]]|-| colspan="2" | [[Image:800px-Virginia Tech Main Eggleston Hall.jpg|200px]]|-| colspan="2" | [[Image:800px-Virginia Tech War Memorial Chapel sunset.jpg|200px]]|-| colspan="2" | [[Image:800px-VirginiaTech-CorpsofCadets-Marching.jpg|200px]]|}Stull said later that the word "Hoki" was a pure invention, meant to be an attention-grabber. An "e" was later added to the word, and ''Hokie'' became the nickname for Virginia Tech students. 1896 was also the year in which the school colors were changed from black and gray to burnt orange and Chicago maroon, and in which the college seal and school motto&mdash;''Ut Prosim,'' "That I May Serve"&mdash;were adopted.<ref>[http://www.vt.edu/about/hokie.php What is a Hokie?], Virginia Tech website: origin of "Hokie," school colors, seal, motto</ref>

Military training has always been a feature of Virginia Tech, which is one of six designated ''senior military colleges'' in the United States.<ref>The others are [[Norwich University ]] in [[Vermont]], [[North Georgia College and State University]], [[Texas A&MUniversity]], [[The Citadel ]] in [[Charleston]], SC, and [[Virginia Military Institute]].</ref> All students were cadets when it opened in 1872.<ref>[http://www.vtcc.vt.edu/About/History/ Tech Corps of Cadets: History]</ref>

In 1953, with the admission of Irving Linwood Peddrew as an electrical engineering student, Virginia Tech became, not only the first all-white public school in Virginia to desegregate, but also the first historically white land grant school anywhere in the south to do so.<ref>http://www.vtmagazine.vt.edu/fall97/feature1.html</ref> in 1953, with the admission of Irving Linwood Peddrew as an electrical engineering student. The Board of Visitors ruled that no state-supported school for Negroes offered comparable training, and the Virginia attorney-general had advised that Supreme Court rulings took precedence over Virginia's racial segregation laws.<ref>"Negro to Study at V. P. I.; 1st of Race to Enger State-Aided White School as Freshman." ''The New York Times,'' September 12, 1953, p. 19</ref>  In 2003, Virginia Tech's Terascale Computing Facility made national news for building the third-fastest supercomputer in the world. What made the news was not that that it was fast, but the way in which it was built. It was assembled from 1,100 ordinary off-the-shelf desktop computers (Apple Power Mac G5), networked via Infiniband technology. The result was an extraordinarily cost-effective system: Virginia Tech's 10-teraflop "Big Mac" cost $5.2 million; by comparison, the then-record-holding 35-teraflop Earth Simulator cost an estimated $350 million.<ref>[http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2003/11/61252 Mac Supercomputer Joins Elite], Wired, November 15, 2003</ref>